1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a cleaning assembly for an electrostatographic marking engine, and more particularly to a cleaning assembly which has a unique control for the operating speed of the conductive fiber brush that reduces the contamination of the image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical commercial reproduction apparatus (electrostatographic copier/duplicators, printers, or the like), a latent image charge pattern is formed on a uniformly charged dielectric member. Pigmented marking particles are attracted to the latent image charge pattern to develop such images on the dielectric member. A receiver member is then brought into contact with the dielectric member. An electric field, such as provided by a corona charger or an electrically biased roller, is applied to transfer the marking particle developed image to the receiver member from the dielectric member. After transfer, the receiver member bearing the transferred image is separated from the dielectric member and transported away from the dielectric member to a fuser apparatus at a downstream location. There, the image is fixed to the receiver member by heat and/or pressure from the fuser apparatus to form a permanent reproduction thereon.
However, not all of the marking particles are transferred to the printing material and some remain upon the belts or drum. Therefore, a cleaning assembly is commonly used to remove the excess marking particles. The cleaning assembly usually includes an electrostatic cleaning brush (detone roller), a skive, and a receptacle to hold the excess marking particles (waste toner material). The devices within the cleaner assembly generally rotate to remove waste particles.
A problem occurs when toner on the conductive fiber brush becomes airborne because it is possible for such airborne waste toner particles to be carried outside the cleaner casing through the viscous boundary layer of air created due to the rotation of the cleaning brush. If this waste toner exits the cleaning assembly, it can contaminate the remaining portions of the image processing apparatus. Therefore, there is a need to prevent waste toner particles that are on the conductive fiber brush from becoming airborne and exiting the cleaner assembly. The invention discussed below addresses this problem by controlling the speed of the brush to prevent waste toner particles from being thrown from the conductive fiber brush.